“A Happy New Year! Grant that I May bring no tear to any eye. When this New Year in time shall end. Let it be said I’ve played the friend, Have lived and loved and labored here, And made of it a happy year.” Edgar A. Guest

Motivation Mondays: Happy New Year

A good beginning makes a good end. Louis L’Amour
‘Dear world, I am excited to be alive in you, and I am thankful for another year. Charlotte Eriksson
Just read one book a month and at the end of they year you would be totally different but an impressive personality. Amit Kalantri.
Whatever you wanna be, just, at the end of the day, if you’re being a good person, which is not hard to be, and you’re putting positive energy into the world, and you’re appreciative and loving to the people around you that care about you and everybody in general, then it’ll work out. Gnash

Happy New Year 2018! What are you going to do with yours?Start Small and Build: What a gift to live through one year and greet another year. One of the joys of starting a new year is that we can begin afresh, clean the slate and revisit our plans and promises from the previous year. Instead of wasting time bemoaning what we coulda/shoulda/woulda worked on in 2017, let’s make 2018 a new year to focus on the things staring us in the face. If we start with the small things then the big picture will take shape. Think BIG and start SMALL. If you remember that Jeff Besos started Amazon in a garage, Mark Z envisioned Facebook as a hobby in a college dorm, and that Google started as a graduate school project by two friends, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, it would make sense that the fantastic begins with a small action step. So let’s have a conversation with our higher self and focus on what we know we are capable of achieving.

Think of a puzzle of a 1000 pieces; you start with one piece and methodically find your way through hundreds and hundreds of tiny connectors, and piece them together until, viola, the work is done. At least until others show up demanding your expertise and offering feedback. What often happens with so many of us is that we spend so much time worrying about the future, the expectations of others or even the amount of work we imagine it would take to get stuff done that we become paralyzed. If we remember to acknowledge the tightening knot of fear in our stomach, still stay the course and work our plan by taking decisive action steps we will reach the next level of our game plan. To get there, we must push those gnawing, fearful thoughts aside and refocus on the here and now by zeroing into one small facet of our task, magic happens. Okay, a fairy with a wand doesn’t show up… I know. What really happens is that our mind buys into the task once we get into the groove of it and, before we know it, a great portion of our mountain has become a molehill.

Another Fresh New Year is Here – by William Arthur Ward via yourdailypoem
Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!

“New Year’s Day. A fresh start. A new chapter in life waiting to be written. New questions to be asked, embraced, and loved. Answers to be discovered and then lived in this transformative year of delight and self-discovery. Today carve out a quiet interlude for yourself in which to dream, pen in hand. Only dreams give birth to change.” Sarah Ban Breathnach

Motivation Mondays: Happy New Year

Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery. John Ruskin
Any new beginning is forged from the shards of the past, not from the abandonment of the past. Craig D. Lounsbrough
If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us. Jim Rohn
Indeed, this life is a test. It is a test of many things – of our convictions and priorities, our faith and our faithfulness, our patience and our resilience, and in the end, our ultimate desires. Sheri L. Dew

How do we start afresh? What can we do? What You Believe, You Become: We can start this year with a laundry list of all the reasons why things didn’t go our way, or we can be proactive by re-framing our strategies and moving forward. There will always be mountains to hike and, if we remember Ruskin’s advice above, we must stay focused on reaching the mountain top. Why? Because those who don’t get sidelined by fear, excuses, or real and imagined adversaries will get to enjoy the beautiful scenery. Instead of spending valuable time imagining all the ways things can go wrong, or listing all the reasons why we can’t/won’t do X, we need to turn those voices down and take a decisive step forward. I find that when I act on a task without debating all the pros and cons, I am able to get things done. Conversely, when I wallow in day dream land and look at every permutation of a task, it doesn’t get done.

Commit to Grow Not just Change: When William James said that The greatest revolution in our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives, he was on to something deeply profound and ingrained in every human. We develop our beliefs from our family/culture/environment/surroundings and those perceptions, beliefs and attitudes become so entrenched that so many of us are never able to wrestle our mind from the programming and experience a much needed paradigm shift. Our brain processes our excuses in real time and so we must be vigilant with what we feed our mind. Think back to a simple every day task like laundry. When we first look at the pile of clothes, they look insurmountable like a messy mountain with nooks and crevices everywhere. We imagine the chore of sorting and spot treating our garments. We imagine the endless whirl of the machines as they soak, wash, rise and dry our clothes. At the end, we experience the satisfaction that only comes from sticking to a task and doing it well… the exhilaration of completion. The same mindset can be applied to other areas of our lives.READ: Psychology Today: You Are What You BelieveThe details for Motivation Mondays are below. Join in! The themes for DEC 2017/JAN 2018 are:

“We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives…not looking for flaws, but for potential.” Ellen Goodman

Motivation Mondays: Happy New Year

Motivation Mondays: Happy New Year

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning. T.S. Eliot
I’ve become fascinated by the idea that it’s really achievable to make two or three small improvements in a week and by the end of the year, it’s 150 improvements.” – Darrell Hammond
Every tomorrow is an outcome of what I do today, and the beauty of it all is that today is happening all the time. Craig D. Lounsbrough

What will you aim/look for in 2018? Your Altitude will Match your Attitude: Celebrate your victories and believe in your ability to get things done… even if it is in your own time. When the great Zig Ziglar shared this statement years ago, “It is your attitude, more than your aptitude, that will determine your altitude,” it resonated with so many people. Having a positive attitude about good and bad events in our lives doesn’t mean we deny the existence of the bad ones. It means we weigh the results, look for the good in an experience and then remember the lessons to help us press on. The lessons add to our bag of life experiences that teach us insight and wisdom to guide our path. Key to our altitude shift is our ability to MOVE On! When you experience a disappointment or a discouraging response from others, assess the feedback and take from it what you need to propel yourself back on track.

Persistence Pays Off: How many times have we read of Best Selling authors who were initially rejected by multiple publishers before hitting pay-dirt? If JK Rowlings had packed up her dreams of ever getting Harry Potter published after so many rejections, she wouldn’t be the phenomenal success story we know today. There are so many bright lights who allowed negative feedback to derail their dreams because they bought into the negativity. Keep a shield around your dream, stay persistent and don’t own the feedback. See it for what it is… an opinion from someone else. PRESS ON! make this Happy New Year a much needed happy one by enjoying the things you love, taking necessary action to reach your goals, and giving back to your community and those in need. May 2018 be your best year yet!

Motivation Mondays is open to anyone who wishes to share a motivational quote, photo, personal challenge or a post that encourages others to start the week on an upbeat note.Basic Instructions: Each week, I will have a motivation word to help us create a response. (See listed words for the months above/below)Email address: You may email or share your post as a comment and I will add it to the round-up of related posts. email it to: contact(@)mirthandmotivation(.)comCategory tag: – Share your post using Motivation MondaysTwitter hashtag: – Use this on Twitter #MotvnMDedicated Page: There is a dedicated page for Motivation Mondays. It has the same instructions and will include other helpful tools and a link to the round-upFacebook Page:MotivationOnMondays Join our page and add your post and/or any motivational piece you think will be helpful to others.Facebook Community: We have a Facebook community forum to compliment the page. It serves as another way to share uplifting posts and thoughts. Please join in and add your voice.

Badge: – I created a fun badge using PicMonkey’s free photo editing tools. You can create your own, use WordPress’ integrated tool on your blog or you are welcome to use mine. (see dedicated page)Tag: – Motivation MondaysHashtag: – #MotvnM

Happy New Year to you too Elizabeth and I must admit I got a little side tracked there reading Jeff Bezos story. How amazing. Sometimes I find myself too focused on the big picture and it all seems so frightening. I’m going to make a huge effort to tackle the little bits inside the picture instead this year. Thanks for sharing that bit of wisdom my friend

I completely agree that a new year is always a chance for a brand new slate. We shouldn’t bemoan what we could have/should have/would have done in 2017, instead we should focus on what we want to do in 2018 and work out the best way of ticking off our goals!

Happy New Year, dear One! What a great post to inspire and ignite the heart! As we all begin anew, my prayer is to remember that at any time we wish, we can decide again and again on our “yes!” Blessings and much-continued prosperity!

There is definitely a ton of motivation to fuel the new year packed into here. I love your posit that New Years is about growth, both just change. That is so true and many forget that, but in reality there is no change without growth. Happy New Year!

You are right! The small things first, they will all add up and complete the picture. Thank you! I think with worrying about if my job is safe or not I’ve already began trying to do the whole puzzle before any pieces are out of the box. I am aiming to worry less, what will be will be but to do my best in helping myself move forward. Happy new year to you Eliz!

There is so much I am expecting out of 2018. I don’t do resolutions because I believe in living in the moment. I do believe in setting goals and applying discipline to achieve them but I want to make sure I am living each day to the fullest and letting those around me know how much they mean to me.

As always I love your photos, the two in the center are absolutely beautiful! I’m not exactly sure where this year is going to take me because like many I am not the only one making decisions. Therefore, I have decided to take a bit more time and thinking/learning with my blog until I am clear.

I think last year was a tough year and I plan to make this one a better year for me and my family. I like the chance for a fresh start and I’m really excited to meet all my goals! I hope you have a lovely year ahead!

Another amazing post full of motivation and thought provoking statement. One thing so have learn is to START. so many put off their growth because they do not want to take the first step. I love that you said start small. Looking forward to another peaceful and productive week.

Do you really think reading one book per month can change you? Would you have to choose meaningful books or just reading any book? I spent my New Year’s Day with what i thought was cleaning (sorting through boxes of saved children’s artwork) and really was an opportunity for reflection. I’m grateful that the universe sends me this message: I will try to make good effort in understanding.

Happy New Year, Elizabeth. This New Year makes me anxious because I know some events will not be good. My mom is really sick and we have to prepare for the worst. However, I will try to make the best of what the year will bring. Prayers will be my sword, my faith will be my armor.

I’ve been practicing something a little bit different. I start my “New Years” resolutions at the start of December. That way, I hit the ground running in January and I’m already on a path of habit. It helps keep me motivated to continue!

Happy New year, Elizabeth! My favorite thing here is “grow, not just change.” It’s my goal every single new year to grow in at least one area…in a realistic, do-able, manageable way… just to see growth in that area, taking steps in the right direction. It makes a difference! It’s the in slow, step at a time, daily growth that we eventually can change 🙂

“A Happy New Year! Grant that I May bring no tear to any eye. When this New Year in time shall end. Let it be said I’ve played the friend, Have lived and loved and labored here, And made of it a happy year.” Edgar A. Guest
This quote says all how to be a good human in New Year. And I will strive hard to be so.

I love your posts, you always inspire me to dream big and achieve big. I would pay to see a motivational conference by you! Anyway, I think what I like most is that you said to start small and build. I think that’s such an important thing to do or you become overwhelmed. Thank you for sharing, as always! Love your blog!

I love the idea of looking at it like a puzzle. I’m definitely just starting to put the smaller pieces together but I know if I keep at it and progress I can turn this year into something amazing! Happy New Year to you!